Injury Prevention Finale
My final thoughts on this subject, and would wish I were at a race track and currently dealing with these problems day to day which dramatically shifts your focus and concentration. Worrying about the survival of your horse through the next speed work, breeze, race, even at times the slow gallops where you have rider uncertainty is a continuing dicey proposition. I've been there many a time, but right now, it's been a while. Last time at the track was 2007, and my horse survived 40 or 50 straight breezes over a course of 4 months as I recollect, no problem. Without racing though. It's a different ball game when you're entering every other week. The tension is a little more prevalent.
And, I have spent 2 years considering fracture prevention. There has been some good about that, which I mainly believe, in the future when I look at those horse cannons post race, believe I'll have a pretty good idea what's going on in there, and what's up next whereas before I was flying blind through total guess work.
If I personally have contributed anything to horse racing I'd have to pick out my own injury prevention formula. I think it's immutable, it will hardly necessarily keep your horse healthy in a positive sense, but will guarantee that non-observance of this will injure your horse probably sooner instead of later. Here it is again:
Never ever do anything with a horse unless you are 100% certain you can do it without injury!
The emphasis is on "never ever" and 100%. When I'm at the track and there's doubt, an interesting little word in this context, you always back off 100% of the time. If there's a difference of opinion between you and your trainer, this creates confirmed doubt, and you back off. If you and you trainer agree on something, or agree on a risk that needs to be taken, you're more likely to be ok.
It helps to put these sorts of things in specific context possibly from the obvious to the extremely subtle. If e.g. you have a trainer who's mucking stalls while the horse is on the track, you may want to consider making a change. If you yourself lack enough info to understand that this needs to be verified by you--i.e. you show up when he's not there and watch him--then you're not for long in the game, and that's probably pretty well guaranteed. A trainer who fails to watch the horse train is going to injure the horse. Period.
Or the more subtle--you talk to your trainer every day who tells you what the rider did every day. Then, one day, the trainer notes--the horse went great, terrific work. regular rider never showed. Every flag there is ought to be going off in your head at such a conversation. If it is unknown to you why, again, you're probably a short timer in the game.
As I go now presumably into the question of "performance" and illustrate this hopefully with my own horse, I will of course every day be considering the injury ramifications of proposed work. Injuries are a continuing subject, always. RR Rule #1 is stated above.
Training:
If there is a god in heaven it has crossed my mind that he wants to keep me off the race track. Sequence of events:
1. Wed. night gallop aborted by Mr. Nob after 3 heats. Wisdom, as it turns out. Nob said the horse was showing signs of enough. We soon found out why.
2. Unsaddle, I see horse walking out of corner of my eye, seem ever so slightly stiff walk. Really have to pay attention to see. I injury check later. Nothing.
3. Next morning horse walking to feed tub and I see the stiffness again. Injury check again. Nothing. If I am seeing correctly, it has to be in sole of feet.
4. Evening I trot the horse before saddling and he's limping. Less than a head nodding limp, but visible. Thinking bruised foot doing speed work over the rough ground we have. That night he's chasing the older one in the pasture and thus thinking 2 days off instead of 10 or more from a severe bruise.
5. Last night in the dark the horse is visibly limping severely at the walk.
Could be an abscesses. More likely bruised himself doing speed work over hard caked diveted clodded mud. There's a path through it, but he veered off the path a couple of times. We knew this might happen--took the risk. Will see how it goes.
And, I have spent 2 years considering fracture prevention. There has been some good about that, which I mainly believe, in the future when I look at those horse cannons post race, believe I'll have a pretty good idea what's going on in there, and what's up next whereas before I was flying blind through total guess work.
If I personally have contributed anything to horse racing I'd have to pick out my own injury prevention formula. I think it's immutable, it will hardly necessarily keep your horse healthy in a positive sense, but will guarantee that non-observance of this will injure your horse probably sooner instead of later. Here it is again:
Never ever do anything with a horse unless you are 100% certain you can do it without injury!
The emphasis is on "never ever" and 100%. When I'm at the track and there's doubt, an interesting little word in this context, you always back off 100% of the time. If there's a difference of opinion between you and your trainer, this creates confirmed doubt, and you back off. If you and you trainer agree on something, or agree on a risk that needs to be taken, you're more likely to be ok.
It helps to put these sorts of things in specific context possibly from the obvious to the extremely subtle. If e.g. you have a trainer who's mucking stalls while the horse is on the track, you may want to consider making a change. If you yourself lack enough info to understand that this needs to be verified by you--i.e. you show up when he's not there and watch him--then you're not for long in the game, and that's probably pretty well guaranteed. A trainer who fails to watch the horse train is going to injure the horse. Period.
Or the more subtle--you talk to your trainer every day who tells you what the rider did every day. Then, one day, the trainer notes--the horse went great, terrific work. regular rider never showed. Every flag there is ought to be going off in your head at such a conversation. If it is unknown to you why, again, you're probably a short timer in the game.
As I go now presumably into the question of "performance" and illustrate this hopefully with my own horse, I will of course every day be considering the injury ramifications of proposed work. Injuries are a continuing subject, always. RR Rule #1 is stated above.
Training:
If there is a god in heaven it has crossed my mind that he wants to keep me off the race track. Sequence of events:
1. Wed. night gallop aborted by Mr. Nob after 3 heats. Wisdom, as it turns out. Nob said the horse was showing signs of enough. We soon found out why.
2. Unsaddle, I see horse walking out of corner of my eye, seem ever so slightly stiff walk. Really have to pay attention to see. I injury check later. Nothing.
3. Next morning horse walking to feed tub and I see the stiffness again. Injury check again. Nothing. If I am seeing correctly, it has to be in sole of feet.
4. Evening I trot the horse before saddling and he's limping. Less than a head nodding limp, but visible. Thinking bruised foot doing speed work over the rough ground we have. That night he's chasing the older one in the pasture and thus thinking 2 days off instead of 10 or more from a severe bruise.
5. Last night in the dark the horse is visibly limping severely at the walk.
Could be an abscesses. More likely bruised himself doing speed work over hard caked diveted clodded mud. There's a path through it, but he veered off the path a couple of times. We knew this might happen--took the risk. Will see how it goes.
posted by rather rapid at
10:59 AM
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